1. Field of The Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for adjustably mounting a cooling device to a computer enclosure and, more particularly, to a bracket fixed onto a wall of the computer enclosure for slidably mounting a cooling device, such as a fan, thereon, whereby, the fan can slide back and forth to a specified position corresponding to the CPU's location on a mother board and direct cool air to flow toward the CPU for dissipating heat generated thereby.
2. The Related Art
Heat dissipation and ventilation are two important issues of computer system design. If the heat in a computer system can not be properly and quickly transferred out of the enclosure, the computer system will malfunction resulting in serious damage. The conventional method for heat dissipation of a computer system is to mount a heat sink or a cooler onto the CPU, the main source of heat within the computer system, and increase the number of fans for facilitating air flow in the interior of the computer enclosure.
A conventional heat sink mounted to a surface of a CPU is a passive heat convection apparatus. Due to the contacting engagement between the heat sink and the CPU, heat will conduct from the CPU to the heat sink and dissipate from fins of the heat sink. The fan of a switching power supply draws the air flow from the interior of the enclosure toward an exterior thereof. Thus, heat generated by the CPU or other heat generating devices is transferred out of the enclosure. As computer technology progresses, heat generated by newer computer systems with a PentiumII CPU may be ten times that of systems with a 386 or 486 CPU. Therefore, it is understood that a conventional heat sink is not enough to resolve this issue.
To overcome the limitation described above, a small fan directly mounted to a top portion of a heat sink increases air flow through the fins therebeneath. The assembly of the small fan and the heat sink, referred to as a "cooler", is an active heat convection apparatus for dissipating the heat more effectively than conventional passive heat sinks. Sometimes such coolers force the dissipated heat in the interior of the enclosure even closer to the CPU. Therefore, the misdirected heat adversely affects the function of the computer system which defeats the purpose of such a cooler. The most important defect of the cooler is that the small and precise fan is positioned too close to the CPU and is adversely affected by the high temperature of the CPU which reduces the life span of the fan. This defect induces malfunction of the CPU which disable the computer.
Some computers are designed with an additional fan directly mounted to a front wall of the enclosure to direct the air flow toward the switching power supply which draws the air flow out of a rear side thereof. Thus, a circulation of air flow to improve the ventilation of the computer system is created. Since a computer enclosure may contain several different types of mother boards, a hidden corner may exist which may obstruct the cool outside air from completely flowing through the CPU. Therefore, the heat generated from the CPU is retained within the inner space of the enclosure. To concentrate the air flow toward the CPU, an air flow guiding apparatus is mounted to the enclosure. The air flow guiding apparatus is fitted to one specific mother board, thus, if the mother board is changed, a new guiding apparatus must be designed and manufactured. The related prior published patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,712,159, 4,890,196, 5,208,731, 5,276,585, 5,486,980, and 5,502,619.
Due to the limitations of the above designs, an improved apparatus is required which is adjustably mounted to a position corresponding to the location of the CPU on the mother board not only for dissipating the heat generated by the CPU but also for facilitating adequate ventilation within the computer system.